Senator Barack Obama at the Western Wall early Thursday. (Photo: Paul J. Richards/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

JERUSALEM — Senator Barack Obama made a pre-dawn visit here Thursday to the Western Wall, arriving in the Old City as a clear moon helped illuminate a still-dark sky.

Mr. Obama, wearing a white yarmulke, made his way down a walkway toward the Wall. He was escorted by the Rabbi of the Wall, Shmuel Rabinovich, and surrounded by many other followers at one of the holiest sites in Judaism.

As the rabbi quietly read from Psalm 122, both he and Mr. Obama flipped through a Holy book on a wooden stand. The moment unfolded as a lone man standing about 10 yards away yelled over and over, “Obama, Jerusalem is not for sale! Obama, Jerusalem is not for sale!”

After the prayer, Mr. Obama walked a final few paces to the Wall and followed the custom of placing a personal prayer between the stone cracks, with his note left alongside hundreds of others. He placed his hand on the Wall, bowed his head and stood in quiet contemplation for a few moments.
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WILKES-BARRE, Pa.­ — As Senator Barack Obama met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the Middle East on Wednesday, Senator John McCain talked up his own support of Israel a half-world away. “I look you in the eye, and I tell you, as the United States once said, and will say again and again, we will never allow a second Holocaust,’’ Mr. McCain told a crowd at a town-hall meeting here.

Mr. McCain was speaking in a far-less exotic locale than Mr. Obama, in a downtown Wilkes-Barre auditorium on a gray, sodden day, but he refrained, at least on this issue, from criticizing his rival for a presidential-like trip to the Middle East. Instead, Mr. McCain said that he was more concerned than ever about the security of Israel.

“They are probably in many respects under greater threat than they have been since their independence,’’ Mr. McCain said, then mentioned, as he frequently does, the danger from Iran, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.’’

“And they have the means to do it,’’ Mr. McCain said. “You can imagine what the United States would feel if we were in a similar situation.’’ Nonetheless, he said, “I believe that we can resolve this by putting sufficient pressure on the Iranians diplomatically, economically and every other way.’’

Mr. McCain also said that the status of Jerusalem should be “the subject of negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israel government,’’ which is the longstanding U.S. position. In June, Mr. Obama insisted on his first day as the presumptive Democratic nominee that Jerusalem should remain undivided as the capital of the Jewish nation. Mr. Obama’s remarks were immediately criticized by Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, and he has since retreated from them.

AMMAN, Jordan – As Senator Barack Obama arrived here on Tuesday, with his tours of Afghanistan and Iraq behind him, one of the biggest political challenges of his overseas trip was coming into view: the navigation of the Middle East peace process.

It is expected to be one of the topics at his dinner with King Abdullah, who flew back early from a visit to the United States to meet with Mr. Obama. And on Wednesday, it will be the focus of a daylong series of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

Mr. Obama is scheduled to sit down separately with Israeli President Simon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Then, he will go to the West Bank to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

For Mr. Obama, who struggled to win over Jewish voters during the Democratic primary, his meetings with the respective leaders are being carefully watched. His words will be closely examined by both sides, particularly after a speech last month in Washington in which Mr. Obama endorsed a two-state settlement for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but said that Jerusalem should remain, undivided, the capital of the Jewish nation.

A senior foreign policy adviser said there would be no confusion from Mr. Obama.

“He has repeatedly said that Jerusalem is a final status issue to be negotiated by the parties,†the adviser told reporters in a background briefing here. “Jerusalem would remain Israel’s capital. It should not be divided with barbed wire and checkpoints as it was between 1948 and 1967.â€

Mr. Obama also is scheduled to visit the southern Israeli town of Sderot, located near Gaza, which has been hit by more than 2,000 rockets in the past four years. It is a must-stop destination for visiting politicians, including Senator John McCain, who toured it in March during a visit to the Middle East.
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Senator Barack Obama will visit Israel and the Palestinian territory of the West Bank in the middle of next week, Israel and Palestinian officials said Monday.

Mr. Obama is expected to arrive on July 22 and stay about 24 hours, according to an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the visit have not yet been made public.

In Israel, Mr. Obama, the presumed Democratic nominee for president, is expected to meet with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and the head of the opposition, the Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Although the senator’s itinerary has not yet been finalized, he is also supposed to visit the Israeli border town of Sderot, for years a target of Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza, and sites in Jerusalem including the Western Wall, a place of Jewish worship in the Old City.
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WASHINGTON – Senator Barack Obama will make his first foreign trip as a presidential candidate next month when he travels to the Middle East and Europe, his campaign announced today.

Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, will visit Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. On a separate trip, he is also planning to visit American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, but aides declined to disclose those details for security reasons.

It will be Mr. Obama’s second tour of Iraq and his fourth international trip since being elected to the United States Senate four years ago. His Republican rival, Senator John McCain of Arizona, has sought to make foreign policy experience a central issue in the presidential race and has criticized Mr. Obama for not visiting Iraq in more than two years.

The trip was announced today as Mr. Obama visited wounded American troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

“This trip will be an important opportunity for me to assess the situation in countries that are critical to American national security,†Mr. Obama said in a statement, “and to consult with some of our closest friends and allies about the common challenges we face.â€

Mr. McCain, who has visited Iraq several times, is expected to make a return visit to the country before the election. He also is scheduled to visit Mexico and South America in July.
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Democrats did not expect Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, the independent and former Democratic vice presidential nominee, to endorse Senator Barack Obama after he secured enough delegates to be the Democratic presidential pick. After all, Mr. Lieberman is a close ally of Senator John McCain.

But they evidently did not anticipate he would join in a Republican event criticizing Mr. Obama’s stance on Iran and Israel when the Democrat was making his first appearance as the presumptive nominee before a leading Jewish organization.

That did not go over well with Democrats, who have made an uneasy peace with Mr. Lieberman since they need his vote to hold the majority in the Senate. It is one thing to back his friend; it is another thing to aggressively go after Mr. Obama in concert with lawmakers such as Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, a member of the House Republican leadership.

“To attack Barack, it seemed like crossing a line,†said Representative Rahm Emanuel, Democrat of Illinois.

On the conference call organized by the McCain campaign, Mr. Lieberman weighed in after his colleague’s speech at the American Israel Political Affairs Committee. He said Mr. Obama seemed to blame American foreign policy for most of the current tension with Iran and its threats against Israel. “If Israel is in trouble today, it is not because of American foreign policy,†he told reporters.
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Barack Obama at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual policy conference. (Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times)

Updated|1:40 p.m. Introduced as the nominee of the Democratic Party, Senator Barack Obama drew several standing ovations from a vastly Jewish crowd at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual policy conference in Washington on Wednesday, talking tough on the Iranian threat to Israel while also promising that he would lead in pursuing a peace settlement in Israel.

Mr. Obama endorsed a two-state, Israel-Palestine settlement, and took an implicit poke at President Bush. He was speaking, as did John McCain before him on Monday, to a policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major lobbying organization for Israel. (Video)

“I won’t wait until the waning days of my presidency,” Mr. Obama said. “I will take an active role and make a personal commitment to do all I can to advance the cause of peace from the start of my administration.”

As president, he added: “I will work to help Israel achieve the goal of two states, a Jewish state of Israel and a Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security.”
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John McCain spoke to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Monday. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times)

WASHINGTON – Senator John McCain of Arizona used a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby, to lambaste Senator Barack Obama on two fronts: he charged that Mr. Obama’s calls for diplomacy with Iran were misguided and insufficient, and that his proposal to begin withdrawing United States troops from Iraq would lead to chaos in the region and endanger Israel.

In remarks that Senator McCain planned to deliver in a cavernous room here at the Washington convention center, he dwelled on the threat that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose – and criticized the positions of Mr. Obama, his likely Democratic rival.

“The Iranians have spent years working toward a nuclear program,’’ Mr. McCain was to say, according to excerpts from the speech provided by his campaign. “And the idea that they now seek nuclear weapons because we refuse to engage in presidential-level talks is a serious misreading of history,’’ he added, noting that previous overtures by the Clinton administration had failed.

“Even so, we hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before,’’ he said in the advance text of his speech, which was provided by his campaign.

“Yet it’s hard to see what such a summit with President Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants, and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another. Such a spectacle would harm Iranian moderates and dissidents, as the radicals and hardliners strengthen their position and suddenly acquire the appearance of respectability.â€

Mr. McCain was returning to a familiar line of attack on Mr. Obama – who has made a point of saying that he would use diplomacy even with countries that disagree with the United States — for his statement during a debate last summer that he would be willing to meet with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea without preconditions.

The Obama campaign countered swiftly. “John McCain stubbornly insists on continuing a dangerous and failed foreign policy that has clearly made the United States and Israel less secure,’’ Hari Sevugan, a campaign spokesman said.

“Here are the results of the policies that John McCain has supported, and would continue. During the Bush Administration, Iran has dramatically expanded its nuclear program, going from zero centrifuges to more than 3000 centrifuges,’’ he said. “During the Bush Administration, Iran has expanded its influence throughout a vitally important region, plying Hamas and Hezbollah with money and arms. During the Bush Administration, Hamas took over Gaza. Most importantly, the war in Iraq that John McCain supported and promises to continue indefinitely has done more to dramatically strengthen and embolden Iran than anything in a generation.’’
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Seems like everyone had something to say about President Bush’s comment to the Israeli Knesset today, when he seemed to imply that an Obama presidency would be akin to appeasement of terrorists.

Among among all the reactions, Senator Joseph Biden, former presidential candidate, offered quite a few colorful words that stood out among the jammed inboxes.

Mr. Biden’s initial reaction, when a group of journalists approached him on Capitol Hill today, was to, well, swear. Mr. Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the president’s statement “bull-expletive,” then “malarkey.”

Dick Durbin, the Senate Whip and big Obama supporter, brought back another retro adjective, telling Politico it’s “baloney” that the White House is claiming President Bush’s comment wasn’t a hit on Mr. Obama.

Later on a conference call with reporters, Mr. Biden said he should have just stuck with malarkey as his descriptor, not the cuss word, but he still was visibly peeved with the president’s “outrageous” statement.
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Senator John McCain, who has been critical of President Bush on the environment and other policies this week, on Thursday morning wholeheartedly endorsed Mr. Bush’s veiled rebuke in the Israeli Knesset of Senator Barack Obama that talking to “terrorists and radicals” was no different than appeasing Hitler and the Nazis.

“Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain,” Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign bus after a speech in Columbus, Ohio. “I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.”
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President Bush addressed the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, on Thursday in Jerusalem. (Photo: Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

Updated The Obama campaign seized on a section of President Bush’s remarks to members of the Knesset in Israel this morning, interpreting the president’s choice of words as a slap at the Democratic candidate on foreign soil. Senator Barack Obama himself issued a statement, calling it “a false political attack” and an “extraordinary politicization of foreign policy.”

According to an advance text and now televised excerpts, Mr. Bush criticized — without mentioning anyone by name — suggestions for using diplomacy to deal with rogue nations. He specifically cited Iran:

The Obama campaign just released this statement from the senator himself:
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Questions about Barack Obama’s commitment to Israel have been growing ever since an official of Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that the State Department classifies as a terrorist organization, said last month that “we like Mr. Obama and we hope that he will win the election.”

In an interview made available Monday on the site of the monthly magazine The Atlantic, Mr. Obama responded to those doubts and talked at length about his relationship with Israel, American Jews and Zionism.

Senator John McCain has seized on the Hamas comments to imply that Mr. Obama is soft on terrorism and so inexperienced in foreign affairs that he would damage the security interests of both the United States and Israel. But in the interview with the writer Jeffrey Goldberg, Mr. Obama presented himself as an unwavering supporter of Israel, which this month has been celebrating the 60th year of its existence.

“I think that the idea of a secure Jewish state is a fundamentally just idea, and a necessary idea, given not only world history but the active existence of anti-Semitism,” Mr. Obama said.

“That does not mean that I would agree with every action of the state of Israel,” Mr. Obama added. But, he continued, “the fundamental premise of Israel and the need to preserve a Jewish state that is secure is, I think, a just idea and one that should be supported here in the United States and around the world.”

Mr. Obama also sought to draw links between Israel and the trajectory of his own life, saying that the existence of the Jewish state speaks to “my own history of being uprooted” and an upbringing in which he was “always having a sense of values and culture but wanting a place.”
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PARIS – One of the interesting things about Senator John McCain’s trip this week was the chance to see how he would be viewed by newspapers overseas.

A profile that ran here Saturday in Le Figaro called him “the rebel who dreams of the White House.” It pointed out that the title of his memoir, “Faith of My Fathers,” echoes Senator Barack Obama’s “Dreams of My Father.” It also noted that he had been nicknamed “Sénateur Hothead,” which it translated for its readers as ”tête brûlée.”

Mr. McCain, of Arizona, told The Times of London that he planned to take the rest of the weekend off in London with his family. The paper said he wanted to go on the London Eye — “it will be my third time” — and the Churchill war rooms, “but Mrs. McCain is intent on taking him shopping.”

In London, The Daily Telegraph ran a glowing column with the headline, “If Iraq is Better, It’s Because of John McCain.”
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More than 11,000 pages documenting Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tenure as first lady were released yesterday, and they contain “all the emotional punch of a factory-worker’s timecard,” concludes John M. Broder of The New York Times.

After poring over the data, he notes that the documents’ many redactions make it difficult to judge the scope of Mrs. Clinton’s influence on policy, since many of the pages include vague listings such as “private meeting.”

“What the schedules do show, however,” writes The Wall Street Journal, “is that Mrs. Clinton had some involvement in an issue that she now says she opposed: the North American Free Trade Agreement. As first lady, Mrs. Clinton presided over meetings where Nafta was discussed, the schedules show. Her husband signed the accord.”

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JERUSALEM — Pandemonium broke out here Wednesday when Senator John McCain made the traditional pilgrimage to the Western Wall.

Photographers got into fistfights with security officials, and Mr. McCain and his traveling companions — Senator Joseph I. Lieberman and Senator Lindsey Graham — found themselves in the middle of a pushing, shoving mob of photographers, soldiers, police officers, and tourists.

There did not appear to be any injuries, but several pairs of sunglasses were damaged in the mini-melee, which drew astonished stares from an assortment of tourists and Yeshiva students.

The frenzy was set off when many photographers complained that they were unable to get the photo that the photo-op was designed for: a shot of Mr. McCain placing a note into a crack in the wall. The women photographers, who had to stand in separate area, shouted that Mr. Lieberman was blocking their shots. Many of the men were blocked by security forces and other journalists.
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